All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

Squawk.

The Case

I did my third-grade science project on birds and scored enough points to tie
for first place. But a calculating error deprived me of the victory on the day
of the judging. Instead a couple of fifth grade girls earned the glory and they
got a huge picture in the Utica Observer-Dispatch. I can still picture the
headline: "Winning with Wind Power." Eventually the error in my score
was fixed, was awarded first place, and I got my twenty dollar savings bond, but
what I really wanted—a retraction from the paper, or at least a follow-up
picture of me standing there with my certificate of excellence grinning like a
champion—never materialized.

Which leads me to Birds of the Gods, an hour-long trip through New
Guinea, with iconic nature connoisseur David Attenborough as your narrative
guide. Here we meet a pair of New Guinea ornithologists who plunge into the
impenetrable wilderness to sneak a gander at the mythical "birds of
paradise," avian specimens so reclusive and beautiful, it was thought they
had been deposited on Earth directly from Heaven.

The birds' backstory and biology is dwelled upon, as we see the New Guinean
researchers construct their camouflaged bird-watching stand, tucked into a tree,
while masked with leaves and branches. From their perch they are indeed able to
spy on these vaunted birds and the photography is brilliant. The feature caps
off with a genuinely awesome mating ritual by a bird that essentially turns into
a bright-blue dinner plate and bounces around, attempting to woo his beloved.
That's a crappy way to describe the majesty of the exhibition, but trust me it's
cool.

So what does my science fair story and Birds of the Gods have to do
with each other? Absolutely nothing. But now I'm at 300 words and that' just
enough to qualify as a review!

The DVD: a robust 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, 5.1 surround, and
no extras.